Arthritic, scavenged and largely abandoned: the curious tale of a giant pliosaur from the Kimmeridge Clay at Stretham, Cambridgeshire, U.K.

A substantial part of an exceptionally large pliosaur skeleton was uncovered in Upper Jurassic Kimmeridge Clay at Stretham in 1952. Relatively few bones were collected without delay by palaeontologists before members of the public were permitted to take what they wanted. When the importance of the find became evident, attempts were made to recover the material that had been dispersed. Two further discoveries of pliosaur bones dating from 1960...